Manjari Chaturvedi | The Uncharted History Of India's Tawaifs

Manjari Chaturvedi | The Uncharted History Of India's Tawaifs | At Algebra

Рет қаралды 8,599

4 жыл бұрын

If one of the measures of an artist’s mastery is their ability to open up whole new ways of seeing, Manjari Chaturvedi is inarguably one. A dancer extraordinaire for over two decades, she is pioneer and sole practitioner of sufi-kathak; trained in the Lucknow gharana of kathak.
But Manjari has taken her obsession with classical dance and turned it into more than expression: in her hands, it is cultural renaissance and syncretism; narrative form and dialogue. And nothing is more evocative of this than the Courtesan Project, through which Manjari chronicles the historically remarkable role of the ‘tawaif’ in artistic life: as exemplary artists and poets in themselves, and muse to other poets and painters, writers and kings, musicians and leaders.
And in conversation with the formidably articulate danseuse, we talk of her passion for returning to these women the reverence due them for their learning and their performance art; their intelligence and wit; their talent and raw sensual power, in Subversive Ustads.
#culturaldance #sufikathak
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Пікірлер: 25

@pnsange 4 жыл бұрын

Very engrossing...and I must say very informative too !!!! And can I say Manjari Chaturvedi is very beautiful with a v beautiful voice too !!! 👍👍👍👌👌👌👌👌👌👌

@BanjaraSoulVideos 5 ай бұрын

What a wonderful talk! I could be listening to this for at least more ten hours. Thank you for such valuable content!

@yashdeepsingh1890 3 жыл бұрын

Really good points

@nargisdoja3043 Ай бұрын

I am 5 year's late.

@sandeep9bansal 3 жыл бұрын

Filmstars aspire to be seen by us ! Not the other way -

@vip129870 4 жыл бұрын

Mughal culture actually removed much of the eroticism in Krishna-Radha Kathak dances and made them into more somber expressions: It should be remembered that the first Kathak dancers were, after all, Hindus who danced for Moghul overlords. Too much outward expression of religious belief was without doubt undesirable. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the wide use of 'abstract' dancing, intricate bell work (tatkar), dazzling turns and the fleeting, transient, glimpses of Radha and Krishna in Kathak arose both to remind the dancers about their reasons for dancing and (gently, unobtrusively) to deceive their courtly Moghul audiences. Perhaps tatkar and tukras formed the bulk of these first dancers' performances. Gradually more and more images, then stories of Krishna and Radha crept in. - Drid Williams, Anthropology of the Dance

@rashmikapoor42 4 жыл бұрын

As a kathak dancer if I may correct..mughals introduced Kathak in their courts from temples and with this singar ras was introduced and bhakti ras was out introducing sensuality to kathak ...

@vip129870 4 жыл бұрын

@@rashmikapoor42 Its a quote from a book by Drid Williams, a famous anthropologist of dance. You're correcting a quote.

@vip129870 4 жыл бұрын

Kathak dancing, Devadasi girls in temples, Natya Sastra, Kama sutra -- all of this was part of indian culture for over a millennia before the Mughal era. But Algebra keeps shoving it down our throats. Next they will say that Vipassana and Yoga are Sufi!

@kusumpantjoshi5352 28 күн бұрын

Who were the teachers of the tawaifs? Who taught them music, dance and social etiquette that they are supposed to have excelled in and also passed on to the Urdu speaking elites of northern India?

@dipeshsingh402 21 күн бұрын

Devdasiyan of temples!

@niveditamishra6875 Ай бұрын

Kesarbai Kerkar, a tawaif? A court singer, yes. Nothing against tawaifs at all... but simply being a professional singer isn't the same as being a tawaif.

@vip129870 4 жыл бұрын

Algebra is using its platform to Appropriate Hindu culture with Arabic names. Tawaif culture is nothing but Hindu Devadasi culture in Temples.

@simpoosunny4429 3 жыл бұрын

Isn't this a little reductionist. Devdasi culture would definitely be the base for it but by the time we come to a point in history where we start using the word Tawaif, the art form has already evolved a lot and galvanized into a separate culture altogether.

@simpoosunny4429 3 жыл бұрын

Or are you saying that the Devdasi dances and songs and Tawaif dances and songs were exactly the same with no differences whatsoever?

@creaturein6543 2 жыл бұрын

The irony is be it tawaif or devadas or thevaradiyar all have been used as a derogatory term of women

@vip129870 4 жыл бұрын

Put lipstick on a pig it is still a pig - put an arabic name to describe an Indian concept it is still Indian, just culturally appropriated.

@hewhoadds 3 жыл бұрын

Nice borat impression

@aditikanchan4171 3 жыл бұрын

There was no India back then, where does the appropriation come here then?

@chetanmazire5373 4 жыл бұрын

did this broad just compare Lata Mangeshkar to a Tawaif?

@simpoosunny4429 3 жыл бұрын

And with this statement you have hence proven her point. Even after hearing an hour of talk from somebody who has researched well into the history of the artform the most poignant thing you took away was that Lata Mangeshkar was compared to a Tawaif? You garbage of a human being they were exactly what Bollywood Actors and Singers are today. As a matter of fact their audience was the absolute elite of the society unlike the bollywood singers and actors who perform for the lowest common denominator. So a tawaif would have commanded much more authority and respect back then, than a lot of singers and actors in todays society. And judging by the very tiny amount of grey cells you seem to posses you are much more of a broad than an artist with not only the highest level of proficiency in her art form but also high levels of academic knowledge in her discourse.

@aditikanchan4171 3 жыл бұрын

Did your sickly brain just not get the implication? or were you born an idiot with zero understanding and intellect.

@rebeledits5196 Жыл бұрын

Yes

@BH_METAL Ай бұрын

Desist calling someone a broad. It's derogatory

@sept2923 20 күн бұрын

They just addressed both of them as artists.